Private Biomedical Practice in Black Africa before the French Colonial Occupation

Abstract

African medical historians have tended to focus their interest on colonial state organized medicine, at the expense of colonial private provision of medical services. This situation opens up the need for exploring the private practice as a contribution not only to shedding new light on the official account of French colonial medical assistance in Africa, but also to understanding the current challenges of health systems in former French colonies. In France, the movement for the occupational control of labor of professionalism in the area of health began in early nineteenth century, and was authorized around the end of the same century. This process could not ignore medical practice outside France, from the time of overseas territories up to the colonial occupation at the end of the nineteenth century. It is known from travelers' accounts, the literature on the French empire as well as from some incidental mentions in historical accounts on the development of health system in French overseas, that private practice initiated French medicine overseas, and that it was lucrative. It is also known that competition between different occupational groups for status in the area of health was fierce in France until the end of the nineteenth century, and even beyond. Surprisingly, archives on private medical practice in French African colonies are virtually unavailable.